81Editorial Procedures

Of the seventeen extant copies of An Humorous Dayʼs Mirth, BL C34.c.14 (BL1) was chosen as the control copy for this critical text. Substantive press variants have been noted and corrections made to the text where appropriate. Other copies have been consulted particularly for the transcription of half-sheet H, the copy of which is unique in BL1.

82The aim was to produce a modern-spelling edition of the play, edited according to the principles set out by Stanley Wells in Modernizing Shakespeareʼs Spelling. Words have been modernized in accordance with their lemma in the OED. Any words with ambiguous spellings have been carefully considered and spelt to convey their primary meaning. Any alternatives have been recorded in the notes accompanying the text. Some silent emendations have been made, such as, ‘thenʼ for ‘thanʼ, and vice versa.

83‘Andʼ meaning ‘ifʼ, by itself or in the phrase ‘and ifʼ, has been altered to ‘anʼ in clear cases, but where there is some doubt ‘andʼ has been retained, in accordance with Wells. ‘Enowʼ has been modernised to ‘enoughʼ for, despite once signifying a plural, it no longer has such significance.

84Of the long list of press variants, only a handful of substantive alterations were necessary, most of them being alterations to punctuation or spelling. The exceptions are: much] more (TLN 214), would] will (TLN 239), more deeply] most deepely (TLN 371).

85Punctuation has been altered in order to clarify the sense for the modern user of the text. The collation details substantive alterations, particularly when meaning might be affected. Location descriptions are mentioned in the notes at the beginning of a scene when specified by dialogue.

86Stage directions from the control text have been retained and additional directions added only to clarify stage action for the user. Where a variety of staging options are involved, they have been discussed either in the commentary or at an appropriate place in the Introduction. Alterations and insertions appear in square brackets. The six stage directions that appear in the margin of the control copy have been moved to a logical place within the text. Their authority is unknown, but they aid comprehension of the text.

87At the bottom of C2r (TLN 595-596), the stage direction ‘Enter Lemotʼ appears in the margin despite Lemot already being present in the scene. This edition concurs with Holaday that this direction failed to be removed from the skeleton when transferred from inner B to inner C and therefore does not reproduce it from the Quarto.^[198] Turned or obviously incorrect letters in the control text have been silently emended. Speech prefixes have been treated as labels and made uniform in accordance with Wells to avoid the confusion which arises from a text such as Shepherdʼs, where one abbreviation can signify more than one character.

88‘Puritanʼ has been capitalised when thought to refer to a member of the Puritan movement; when referring to a puritanical character, the word remains uncapitalised. Likewise, Devil is capitalised when referring to the actual Devil, as in Satan, but is uncapitalised when the reference is more general, literal or metaphorical. All quotations have been silently modernised except where a point is made which old spelling will illustrate.